Latest reports suggest that Ministers are currently considering plans to weaken the UK’s carbon-cutting plans by allowing the unused portion of the last carbon budget to be carried over to the next period.
This would go against the strong recommendation of the government’s statutory climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee. But it would make the next targets easier to meet.
The UK has emitted less carbon dioxide in recent years than was expected, owing to factors including the Covid-19 pandemic and sluggish economic growth. This should be ignored, allowing for the next set of five-yearly emission targets to be more stringent, the better to reach net zero by 2050, the CCC has said.
According to reports, ministers have until the end of this month to decide, and have only publicly said that such a decision would be made “in due course”. Campaigners fear they are likely to take advantage of the loophole.
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Dustin Benton, policy director at Green Alliance, warned: “The government will make a grave error of judgment if it weakens plans to cut emissions, ‘carrying forward’ a right to burn carbon that only exists because the UK economy has grown less quickly than we thought when we set the third carbon budget in 2008.”
The UK would still have to meet its target of cutting emissions by 68% by 2030, set at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.
“Cashing in phantom credits wouldn’t change our international commitments – it just means we’d need to double the rate at which we cut emissions late this decade, making the job much harder,” Benton said. “It would contradict advice from the UK’s climate watchdog, which is never a good look. By shifting the goalposts, it sends yet another signal that this government isn’t serious about supporting the green industries of the future.”
He pointed to Green Alliance research that has shown only half of carbon reductions needed by 2032 are covered by confirmed policy. “We need action to close the gap – not excuses for inaction,” he said.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
